It is frequently necessary to connect two sheets of material together, with one sheet being edgewise connected to a surface of the other. It is also often useful to be able to disassemble and reassemble such an edgewise connection of sheets.
It is known in the prior art to attach brackets and/or braces to each of the two sheets to hold them together in the desired edgewise connection. Such brackets or braces are generally attached by fasteners that require holes in both sheets. This increases the labor that must be performed to prepare the sheets for connection and the expense of fabrication. Another way to hold the sheets together in edgewise connection is to glue, weld or otherwise permanently attach them. However, these assemblies are either difficult or impossible to disassemble without damaging at least one of the sheets and ready access must exist to the points of connection from the side of the sheet where the connection is made.
In some applications requiring the connection of the edge of one sheet of material to a surface of a base sheet of material, only one surface of the base sheet is accessible. An example of such a situation is in the assembly of radiant reflectors where relatively closely spaced reflective fins are placed edgewise at angles to a base reflective surface. As such, it is convenient to be able to assemble the reflecting fins from the backside of the base reflector. In many applications, it is also advantageous to be able to disassemble the edgewise connected sheets from a base sheet while requiring access from only one side of the base sheet.